AUR helpers

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Warning: AUR helpers are not supported by Arch Linux. You should become familiar with the manual build process in order to be prepared to troubleshoot problems.

Note: Please use the discussion page to suggest edits to this article: Talk:AUR helpers.

AUR helpers automate usage of the Arch User Repository. In particular, they may automate the following tasks:

searching for packages published on the AUR;
resolving of dependencies between AUR packages;
retrieve and build AUR packages;
retrieve web content, such as user comments;
submission of AUR packages.

Pacman only handles updates for pre-built packages in its repositories. AUR packages are redistributed in form of PKGBUILDs and need an AUR helper to automate the re-build process. However, keep in mind that a rebuild of package may be required when its shared library dependencies are updated, not only when the package itself is updated.

Legend

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: libc++ and libc++abi were moved to the official repositories (Discuss in Talk:AUR helpers)

The #Comparison tables columns have the following meaning:

File review

Does not source the PKGBUILD at all by default; or, alerts the user and offers the opportunity to inspect the PKGBUILD manually before it is sourced. Some helpers are known to source PKGBUILDs before the user can inspect them, allowing malicious code to be executed.

Diff view

Ability to view package differences on inspection. Besides the PKGBUILD, this includes changes to files such as .install or .patch files.

Git clone

Uses git-clone(1) by default to retrieve build files from the AUR.

Reliable parser

Ability to handle complex packages by using the provided metadata (RPC/.SRCINFO) instead of PKGBUILD parsing, such as aws-cli-git^AUR.

Reliable solver

Ability to correctly solve and build complex dependency chains, such as ros-melodic-desktop^AUR.

Split packages

Ability to correctly build and install:

Multiple packages from the same package base, without rebuilding or reinstalling multiple times, such as clion^AUR.
Split packages which depend on a package from the same package base, such as libc++ and libc++abi.
Split packages independently, such as python-pyalsaaudio^AUR and python2-pyalsaaudio^AUR.

Shell completion: Tab completion is available for the listed shells.

Note:

Optional means that a feature is available, but only through a command-line argument or configuration option.
Partial means that a feature is not fully implemented, or that it partially deviates from the given criteria.

Comparison tables

Search and download

Name	Written in	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Shell completion	Specificity
auracle-git^AUR	C++	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash	print build order
pbget^AUR	Python	Yes	Yes	–	–	–
repoctl^AUR	Go	No	Yes	–	zsh	local repository
yaah^AUR	Bash	Optional	Yes	–	bash	–

Search and build

Name	Written in	File review	Diff view	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Split packages	Shell completion	Specificity
aurutils^AUR	Bash	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash, zsh	local repository, local patch application, package signing, clean chroot
bauerbill^AUR	Python	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash, zsh	`bb-wrapper` for pacman wrapping, trust management
PKGBUILDer^AUR	Python	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	–	`pb` for pacman wrapping
rua^AUR	Rust	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	bash, zsh, fish	local patch application, bubblewrap, `.pkg.tar` inspection

Pacman wrappers

Warning: pacman(8) wrappers abstract the work of the package manager. They may (optionally or by default) introduce unsafe flags, or other unexpected behavior leading to a defective system.

Note: The following pacman wrappers support batch (rather than on-demand) operations: pacaur^AUR, pikaur^AUR, yay^AUR, aura^AUR, paru^AUR

Name	Written in	File review	Diff view	Git clone	Reliable parser	Reliable solver	Split packages	Unsafe flags	Shell completion	Specificity
aura^AUR	Haskell	No	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	–	bash, fish, zsh	–
pacaur^AUR	Bash	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	--ask	bash, zsh	–
pakku-git^AUR	Nim	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy	bash, zsh	fetch PGP keys
paru^AUR	Rust	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy --ask	bash, fish, zsh	fetch PGP keys
pikaur^AUR	Python	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy	bash, fish, zsh	dynamic users
trizen^AUR	Perl	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	–	bash, fish, zsh	–
yay^AUR	Go	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	-Sy --ask	bash, fish, zsh	fetch PGP keys

Graphical

Warning: Usage of graphical AUR helpers may lead to a defective system, for example through unattended partial upgrades.

Argon — GTK 3 pacman wrapper written in Python.

https://github.com/14mRh4X0r/arch-argon || argon^AUR

Cylon — TUI pacman wrapper written in Bash.

https://github.com/gavinlyonsrepo/cylon || cylon^AUR

Kalu — Systray notification icon using libalpm and PolicyKit, with optional updater

https://github.com/Thulinma/kalu || kalu^AUR

Octopi — Qt 5 pacman wrapper written in C++.

https://tintaescura.com/projects/octopi || octopi^AUR

Pamac — Standalone GTK 3 package manager using libalpm(3) written in Vala.

https://gitlab.manjaro.org/applications/pamac || pamac-aur^AUR

Pakku GUI — GTK 3 frontend for pakku written in Python.

https://gitlab.com/mrvik/pakku-gui || pakku-gui^AUR

PkgBrowser — Qt 5 read-only browser for repository packages and AUR written in Python.

https://osdn.net/projects/pkgbrowser/ || pkgbrowser^AUR

Yup — Curses TUI pacman wrapper written in Go.

https://github.com/ericm/yup || yup^AUR

Maintenance

aur-out-of-date — Uses hoster APIs to check AUR packages for upstream changes.

https://github.com/simon04/aur-out-of-date || aur-out-of-date^AUR

aurpublish — Helper script to manage and upload AUR packages using git-subtree(1). Uses githooks(5) to verify the PKGBUILD integrity, generate .SRCINFO automatically, and create a commit message template.

https://github.com/eli-schwartz/aurpublish || aurpublish

devtools — Build packages in a clean environment (systemd-nspawn container) to ensure their correctness. Wrapped by aurutils^AUR and clean-chroot-manager^AUR.

https://github.com/archlinux/devtools || devtools

pkgbuild-watch — Looks for changes on the upstream web pages.

http://kmkeen.com/pkgbuild-watch || pkgbuild-watch^AUR

pkgoutofdate — Parses the source URL from PKGBUILDs and tries to find new versions of packages by incrementing the version number and sending requests to the web server.

https://github.com/anatol/pkgoutofdate || pkgoutofdate-git^AUR